Lorikeets, crows, the Australian songbirds like the magpies and butcherbirds, parrots and many other birds are very intelligent. Scientists have found that birds have twice as many neurons as chimpanzees in every gram of brain.

"Corvids in particular have been found to be capable of spontaneous analogical reasoning and can exhibit motor self-regulation on a par with great apes. Songbirds and parrots also possess the ability for vocal learning – parrots even exhibit the exceptional ability to learn words and use them to communicate with humans." says author Tatjana Hoehfurtner in her article "Are Birds As Clever as Primates?" published on bioshpereonline.com

Flying takes a lot of energy. More so the bird needs plenty of oxygen to keep it in flight. So how do birds, most of whom are so much smaller than humans manage to breathe. We found this extremely well written explanation on http://people.eku.edu/ritchisong/birdrespiration.html - with plenty of images. There are also animated gifs that demonstrate and compare the respiratory action in humans, birds, insects. Other diagrams show the similarity between dinosaurs and birds.

Blog chat login

Syndicate

Carbon Is Life Book

The story of carbon dioxide, the essential life-giving gas that feeds all life. Contrary to everything we have been told, our planet is currently suffering a carbon famine, with deadly consequences for the poor and for wildlife.

This is the book every environmentalist and lover of wildlife really needs to read! (Click to read more.)